Inland Empire Market Report

By David Silva

Southern California's Inland Empire faces a bigger economic threat in growing unemployment than in the housing downturn, while at least one city in the Imperial Valley is seeing a dramatic shift from residential to commercial and infrastructure development, two financial experts say.

“I’m not so worried about the housing crisis” in the Inland Empire, says Christopher Thornberg, principal of Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics. “Keep in mind that homes that are abandoned are eventually repurchased or rented out, and that many people foreclosed out of a house will go down the street and rent a house before leaving town.”

The Inland Empire continues to lead the rest of the state in foreclosure rates, while permits for new home construction are down 52% in Riverside County and 60% in San Bernardino County this year over last.

Thornberg says the bigger source of concern is the region’s unemployment rate, which at 8.9% is more than 3 points higher than it was in the same period last year and well above the national average of 6.1%.

“That’s going to slow down population growth for the next two or three years,” he adds.

In nearby Imperial Valley, Bruce Coleman, director of economic development for the city of Murrieta, sees the future as moving away from a housing-based economy and toward retail and other types of development.

“Even though the housing market has essentially stalled, there are a lot of examples of retail growth here,” Coleman says. “We’ve seen two additional Target stores come in, and infrastructure projects like the new interchange rebuild on the 215 Freeway. There’s a proposed five-story hospital project affiliated with Loma Linda University and the Murrieta Education Center going up on the west side of the 15 Freeway.”

Murrieta is also home to several ongoing public-education projects, including the 249,261-sq-ft Murrieta Mesa High School development. Construction of the $92 million project began in August 2007, with Temecula-based EDGE Development serving as construction manager and San Diego’s NTD Architecture as project architect.

When completed in August, the 62-acre high school will hold up to 2,400 students. The project includes 82 classrooms; athletics stadium; pool complex and athletics fields for varsity and junior varsity baseball and softball; tennis, basketball, volleyball and handball courts; performing arts center; and parking facilities with 931 spaces.

In eastern Riverside County, the agricultural city of Indio will soon be home to its own deluxe educational facility, the 247,000-sq-ft Desert Sands High School. The $106 million project began in July 2006 and should be completed by September 2009.

As designed by project architect Ruhnau Ruhnau Clarke of Riverside, the 46-acre complex will serve 2,200 students. It features 46 general-education classrooms; eight science classrooms; four science labs; five career-technology classrooms; ceramics, digital printing and special-education classrooms; three art classrooms; two graphics/animation classrooms; a business lab; and a lecture hall.

It also includes a student services building; library; performing arts center; food-service area with a covered lunch shelter; football stadium, varsity and junior varsity baseball, softball and soccer fields; swimming pool; and gymnasium.

“It’s going to be one of the more premier high schools in the whole Coachella Valley out here,” says Larry Flickinger, director of operations for Rancho Cucamonga’s Ledesma & Meyer Construction Co., the project’s construction manager. “Desert Sands (Unified School District) is providing students with a state-of-the-art high school. That’s something they pride themselves in.”

The Murrieta Mesa High School Project Team

Owner: Murrieta Unified School District
Construction Manager: EDGE Development Inc., Temecula
Architect:NTD Architecture, San Diego

The Desert Sands High School Project Team

Owner: Desert Sands Unified School District
Construction Manager: Ledesma & Meyer Construction Co., Rancho Cucamonga
Architect: Ruhnau Ruhnau Clarke. Riverside
HV/AC Subcontractor: Desert Air Conditioning Inc., Palm Springs
Concrete Subcontractor: JBH Structural Concrete Inc., Murrieta

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